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The European Commission has adopted a Communication on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), making strong reference to building resilience to disasters and pointing out the need to respond to new challenges that were not sufficiently covered by the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), such as disaster resilience and risk management.The document titled “A Decent Life for All: From Vision to Collective Action” features disaster risk reduction (DRR) as a cross-cutting issue for sustainable development within the suggested targets and priority areas because they can have a “major impact on the economy as well as on well-being and on the security of citizens, and need to be addressed in the framework in a way that does not replicate or interfere with respective international processes and agreements.

The worst flooding since records began 120 years ago hit Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina over the weekend, when three months' worth of rain fell on the region, bursting river banks and revealing areas at risk that need to be addressed.

For the first time, the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) held a special session on private sector contributions to the post-2015 framework for disaster risk reduction at the European Business Summit. UNISDR’s session, "Reducing Risks in post-2015: Contribution of the Private Sector to Building Resilience to Disasters", addressed three themes that are fundamental to the private sector: Business Opportunity, Business Continuity Management, and Access to Risk Information and Resilience Solutions. Specifically, the discussion focused on how to capitalize on and optimize incentives for disaster resilient business practices and identifying investment opportunities.

The flood-prone capital, Pristina, joined the Making Cities Resilient Campaign today, making it the first city in Kosovo to do so. Floods are a recurring problem in Pristina. The UNISDR Campaign will help bring about a higher level of awareness that there is a compelling need for investment in disaster prevention, rather than focusing on response and allocating resources to cover the damages and economic losses after a disaster strikes.

The UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) today welcomed 64 municipalities spread across Spain’s volcanic chain of seven Canary Islands into the Making Cities Resilient Campaign, which now has 1,800 adherents around the world.

A powerful State committee for safeguarding Venice will meet today in Rome for the first time in three years to consider a proposal from the Mayor of Venice and UNISDR Champion, Giorgio Orsoni, to ban large cruise ships from sailing past the city’s most famous landmarks including the Piazza San Marco and the Doge’s Palace.

The city of Gaziantep, Turkey, officially joined the UNISDR’s Making Cities Resilient Campaign today at a special event “Making Gaziantep Resilient: My City is Getting Ready” co-organized by Turkey’s Prime Ministry, Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) - Regional Office for Europe.

A major step towards implementation of a disaster risk financing framework in South Eastern Europe has been taken with the completion of a first round of training workshops on new approaches to earthquake insurance last month.

The last time a major flood threatened Ireland’s largest inland town, Clonmel Borough Council distributed 7,000 sandbags. Food packs and accommodation were prepared for evacuees. Traffic diversions were agreed. Vulnerable households were contacted by phone.

This time two years ago half of Albania was covered in snow and the country appealed for international assistance. The country and the capital Tirana (pop. 418,000) also lives with the threats of earthquakes, floods, heat waves and drought.

The French capital, Paris, has been invited to join the “Making Cities Resilient” Campaign by the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction as a new OECD analysis reveals the extent of the city’s exposure to a repeat of a major flood disaster.
The OECD Review on Flood Risk Management of the Seine River – commissioned by Etablissement Public Territorial de Bassin (EPTB) Seine Grands Lacs, with the Ministry of Ecology and Ile-de-France Regional Council – found that a repeat of the 1910 flood could affect up to five million residents and cause Euros 30 billion worth of damages.
Speaking at the launch of the report, UNISDR Chief, Margareta Wahlström, said: “Making Paris resilient is an important strategic goal for France. Floods displace more people worldwide, create more unemployment and disrupt city life more than any other category of disaster.

– A comprehensive study has outlined the path towards a standardized European approach to systematically record and manage disaster loss databases.
The report, titled ‘Recording Disaster Losses: Recommendations for a European approach’, is in response to the European Union’s desire to find a mechanism to record systematically disaster losses and provide European loss data to international initiatives so that global trends can be charted.
“Risk assessment requires accurate recording of previous disasters and in particular the associated losses in terms of human casualties, property and environment damage as well as economic loss,” the report says.

The European Parliament today paved the way for stronger cooperation in responding to disasters by adopting new legislation on the EU Civil Protection Mechanism set to come into force at the beginning of 2014.
The EU Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response, Ms Kristalina Georgieva, welcomed the vote, which she said would benefit Europe's citizens and communities globally.
“A rising trend in natural and man-made disasters over the past decade has demonstrated that coherent, efficient and effective policies on disaster management are needed now more than ever”. Ms Georgieva said.

The 10 essentials of the Making Cities Resilient have formed a key part of a series of ambitious local action plans to strengthen sustainable development in Lanzarote.
A coalition of political representatives and 33 community sectors who comprise the Biosphere Reserve Committee have joined to drive the impressive effort to strengthen local resilience on the Canary Island, in the Atlantic, off the north-west coast of Africa.
An integrated management system has been developed covering 10 sectors, including energy, water and waste management, to strengthen climate change mitigation and adaptation.

As disasters continue to cost Albania dearly the country is cooperating on the launch of an innovative regional insurance scheme to complement a stronger domestic approach to disaster risk management.
The Albanian Government has joined with Europa Re, the World Bank and the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) in preparatory work to launch the South Eastern Europe and Caucasus Catastrophe Risk insurance Facility.
The mechanism should reduce the country’s significant fiscal exposure to disasters as a result of various hazards and man-made risk drivers. The insurance facility aims to provide cover for earthquakes and floods. Further risk models are due to be developed for extreme weather insurance.

Finland is set to follow in the footsteps of the UK this week and launch a peer review of its national implementation of the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA), the global agreement on disaster risk reduction.
The 4th European Forum for Disaster Risk Reduction (EFDRR) heard that Finland is aiming for the same impact as the UK’s peer review – the world’s first – which served as a catalyst for high-level engagement and reflection.
As Finland prepared for its review, which gets underway on 5 October, EFDRR members called for a better understanding of advances in governance and accountability of disaster management. They agreed to consolidate Europe’s learning in this regard.

A champion of local action to reduce disaster risk was this week honoured for his years of commitment in support of building safer and more resilient communities worldwide.
The European Forum for Disaster Risk Reduction presented Dr Ilan Kelman with the Damir Čemerin Award for Local Change for his work to link disaster risk reduction with climate change adaptation.

The Mayor of Oslo, Mr. Fabian Stang, last night announced that the Norwegian capital has joined UNISDR's Making Cities Resilient Campaign and linked it to the tragic events of July 2011 when 77 people were murdered in bombings and a mass shooting.

Norway today declared it is taking stronger measures on land use and building regulations as recommended in the global agreement, the Hyogo Framework for Action, to combat the frequency of extreme weather events.

European Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva this week told European parliamentarians that significant progress has been made in reducing disaster impacts across Europe over the last ten years of the Hyogo Framework for Action, the global agreement monitored by the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction.

The UNESCO World Heritage Site city of Dubrovnik, globally celebrated for its rich past and environmental beauty, is taking steps to ensure its future is safeguarded from the threat of disaster.
The city, which has been an active member of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction’s (UNISDR) “Making City Resilient” campaign is taking a series of measures to strengthen resilience at the local level.

On the opening day of the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction, Mayors and local government representatives took part in an open debate on ‘Disaster Risk Reduction Measures at the local level in South Eastern Europe”.
Floods, droughts and forest fires – all of which are cross-border hazards – are the main risks in South Eastern Europe, and projections indicate that climate change and variations could lead to more frequent and severe disasters related to weather, water and climate in the region.

Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) challenges are becoming greater every year. It is well known and understood by all disciplines in disaster prevention that previously unidentified threats are emerging, changes in technology are rendering formerly state-of-the-art systems obsolete or less effective, and migration patterns are causing population shifts to increasingly hazard-prone areas.
However, despite the goal posts moving constantly, consistent progress is being made in efforts to reduce damage and losses inflicted by disasters on people, their communities and livelihoods. This is one of the findings of the European Regional HFA Implementation Report, launched today during the European Forum for Disaster Risk Reduction (EFDRR) at the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction in Geneva, Switzerland.

The UK has become the first country to undergo a peer review to assess its progress in implementing the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA), the world's first comprehensive agreement on disaster risk reduction, adopted in 2005 following the Indian Ocean tsunami.

UNISDR Chief, Margareta Wahlström, today welcomed the European Union's newly announced strategy on adaptation to climate change and stated: "The adoption of this new strategy is a major incentive for European states to step up their efforts for disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation.

Five years after energy black outs and major floods exposed serious weaknesses in the city’s infrastructure and services, the Spanish city of Barcelona was recognized today by the United Nations as a role model for urban resilience in recognition of its efforts to reduce the vulnerability of critical infrastructure and services.